More than 100 students, teachers, journalists and human rights advocates participated in a forum on solving and reporting cases of extrajudicial killings and disappearances on December 10 at the UP College of Mass Communication (UP CMC) Auditorium.

The Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project co-organized the forum with the Journalism Department of the UP CMC, the Asian Congress for Media and Communication, the human rights group Karapatan, and the Mass Communicators Organization, a student organization.

The forum featured as speakers Ruth Cervantes, international liaison and public information officer of Karapatan; Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas and chairperson of the non-government Pamilya ng mga Desaparecidos para sa Katarungan (Desaparecidos); Nonoy Espina, breaking news editor of Inquirer.net, the online news portal of Philippine Daily Inquirer; and Joy delos Reyes, editor-in-chief of the daily Malaya. Officials from the Presidential Human Rights Committee and the Task Force against Political Violence (TF 211) under the justice department were also invited but declined.

Burgos appealed to the media to go beyond merely providing information to the public. “My wish list is that media transcend beyond merely informing. Please go an inch further to find a missing person,” said the widow of the late press freedom fighter Joe Burgos.

“I appeal to the media to go beyond just being media but become a Good Samaritan,” she said in the forum.

Espina, who is also vice chair of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, said more provincial journalists help report cases of EJK and disappearances better because they go more than merely providing basic data on the cases.

“More provincial journalists ask the ‘why’ mainly because they are closer to the action. This is unlike here in Manila where reporters seem to be insulated from what are happening,” Espina said.

Delos Reyes admitted that media needs to do more in terms of reporting EJK and disappearances but said reporting could not be sustained because of the “peculiarity of news.”

“Kahit kami nga sa dyaryo ay nahihilo na kung ano ang uunahing balita (Even us in print media are already confused on what news to report first),” he said.

He also said while media has the primary duty to inform the public, “we don’t set the agenda.”

Cervantes appealed to media to always observe its journalistic values on accuracy, basic fairness and sensitivity. “Stop using labels such as ‘terrorists,’ ‘militants’ or ‘leftists’ because these are actually military labels to legal organizations pushing for human rights,” she said.

Cervantes said human rights education must be integrated early on in formal education system because it takes time before people get to fully understand and apply human rights concepts.